Online Poker

Three cards to each player. Trump card is flipped. Guts style. Those players who go "in" get a draw of as many cards as they want. On the play, players must follow suit. Each trick is worth a third of the pot. Each player who goes "in" and does not get at least one trick must match the pot.

Description

First of all, I was not sure where to classify this game. It is played guts style, it has a draw, but because there is trump and the goal is to collect tricks, I classified it under Non-Poker Games. The dealer must first decide on the ante, which must be at least 15 cents. The reason for this is because the pot must be divisible by 3, so a knickle-ante table would have a 15-cent ante for this game.

The pot is divided into 3 equal piles. Three cards are dealt to each player and a trump card is flipped. The cards are going to be played by players throwing out one of their cards at a time in sequence, and always following suit if they can. For those unfamiliar with trump, it automatically takes the trick, unless a higher trump card is thrown on the same round.

If spades is trump, hearts were led, and everybody has a heart but you, you can throw down any spade and it gets you the trick. If another player also did not have hearts, he could play a higher spade than yours to take the trick.

As it is Guts, players must call "in" or "out". The best way to do this is with the chip declare, where players lower one chip or coin under the table with both hands, raising only one hand over the table. Players who choose to go "in" have the chip in their hand; those who do not want to go "in" leave the chip in the hand that is not raised over the table. Once each player has one hand raised over the table, all players open that hand at the same time. Those that drop a chip are declaring "in". These players are allowed a draw of as many cards as they want.

Play ensues with the first player who called "in" to the left of the dealer leading. Each player in this game must follow suit if they can. Otherwise, they may throw down a trump card if they have one to try and take the trick. Once all players who went "in" have played their three cards, players take a third of the pot for each trick that they collected.

Those players that went "in" and did not collect at least one trick of the three must match the pot. If two players went "in" and collected no tricks, then the pot doubles, but is still divided into three piles for the next round. The game ends when each player who went "in" collects at least one trick. Otherwise, somebody will be throwing money into the pot and the player to the left of the dealer re-deals the same game.

Variations

A different way to determine who leads, rather than it simply being the player who calls "in" to the left of the dealer, works as follows. The number on the card that is flipped up is the number of spaces counted starting to the left of the dealer and counting only those players who went "in". If a 4 was turned up, then 4 spots are counted after the dealer among those players who went "in" to determine who leads.

Once, I played Lou where each trick was not worth a third of the pot. Rather, those players that went "in" and only collected 1 trick had to match the pot anyway, as well as those players who collected no tricks. The player who collects 2 or 3 tricks collects the entire pot.